Two Republican county board members see no challengers in 2014 election

JACKSON, MI –Two seats for the Jackson County Board of Commissioners race have already been decided.

Republican Incumbents Julie Alexander, District 6, and Sarah Lightner, District 1, have no challengers in the Aug. 5 primary, and will automatically retain their seats on the nine-member board. The deadline for independents to run was July 17.

After re-districting took effect November 2012, the board was reduced from 12 to nine members and some members were forced to run against each other. In 2012, Alexander narrowly defeated incumbent board member Jim Videto by 40 votes to represent District 6.

Alexander's district includes the townships of Concord, Spring Arbor, Pulaski and Hanover. Alexander, a former educator, is an advocate for K-12 education. She helps run the family's dairy farm, Na-Lar Farms in Hanover Township with her husband and one of her sons.

Sarah Lightner

Lightner, no longer a newcomer to the political world, is finishing her first two-year term in office representing District 1, which covers the townships of Rives, Tompkins, Parma, Springport and Sandstone.

In 2012, Lightner competed against James Wardius and Jim Wellman; she took 43 percent of the votes. Lightner, an advocate for agriculture, maintains a small crop farm with her husband, a custom hay baling and wrapping operation as well as a deer processing business in the fall. She also has a paralegal background.